The reduction of the melting point in nanometersized metal and molecular clusters has been the subject of numerous theoretical studies and simulations (Ph. Buffat and J.-P. Borel, Phys. Rev. A (1976)13:2287; M. Wautelet, J. Phys. D (1991)24:343; F. Ercolessi, W. Andreoni and E. Tossati, Phys. Rev. Let. (1991) 66:911; R. S. Berry, J. Jellinek and G. Natanson, Phys. Rev. A (1984)30:919). In the semiconductor area, reduced melting temperatures have been demonstrated for binary systems (A. N. Goldstein, C. M. Echer and A. P. Alivisatos, Science (1992)256:1425), albeit with a material dependent tendency towards disproportionation prior to melting, such as in the case of GaAs (A. N. Goldstein, Ph. D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley (1993)).
In a concurrently field co-pending U.S. application I disclosed that such techniques may be extended to the Group IV semiconductors germanium and silicon, despite the fact that in such open systems bonding is predominantly covalent.